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Fear and Loving in Las Vegas: Evolution, Emotion, and Persuasion

Article  in  Journal of Marketing Research · July 2009

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 VLADAS GRISKEVICIUS, NOAH J. GOLDSTEIN, CHAD R. MORTENSEN, JILL M.
SUNDIE, ROBERT B. CIALDINI, and DOUGLAS T. KENRICK*

How do arousal-inducing contexts, such as frightening or romantic

television programs, influence the effectiveness of basic persuasion
heuristics? Three theoretical models make different predictions: (1) A
general arousal model predicts that arousal should increase the
effectiveness of heuristics, (2) an affective valence model predicts that
effectiveness should depend on whether the context elicits positive or
negative affect, and (3) an evolutionary model predicts that persua-
siveness should depend on both the specific emotion elicited and the
content of the particular heuristic. Three experiments examine how fear-
inducing versus romantic contexts influence the effectiveness of two
widely used heuristics—social proof (e.g., “most popular”) and scarcity
(e.g., “limited edition”). The results support the predictions from an
evolutionary model, showing that fear can lead scarcity appeals to be
counterpersuasive and that romantic desire can lead social proof
appeals to be counterpersuasive. The findings highlight how an
evolutionary theoretical approach can lead to novel theoretical and
practical marketing insights.

Keywords: evolutionary models, emotion, motivation, persuasion,

advertising

Fear and Loving in Las Vegas: Evolution,

Emotion, and Persuasion

Imagine the following scenario: You are charged with the
task of creating a television advertising campaign for a new
product. Knowing that people typically do not process
advertisements very deeply, you craft the message with
widely used persuasion tactics that are known to be particu-
larly effective when people make quick and heuristic evalu-
ations (Cialdini 2001). After learning that your advertise-
ment tests well in a focus group, you purchase airtime
during two types of perennially top-rated television
programs: a police crime drama and a romantic comedy.
*Vladas Griskevicius is Assistant Professor of Marketing, Carlson
School of Management, University of Minnesota (e-mail: vladasg@umn.
edu). Noah J. Goldstein is Assistant Professor of Human Resources and
Organizational Behavior, Anderson School of Management, University of
California, Los Angeles (e-mail: noah.goldstein@anderson.ucla.edu).
Chad R. Mortensen is a doctoral candidate in Psychology (e-mail: chad.
mortensen@asu.edu), Robert B. Cialdini is Graduate College Distin-
guished Research Professor and Regents’ Professor of Psychology (e-mail:
Robert.Cialdini@asu.edu), and Douglas T. Kenrick is Professor of Psy-
chology (e-mail: Douglas.Kenrick@asu.edu), Department of Psychology,
Arizona State University. Jill M. Sundie is Assistant Professor of Market-
ing and Entrepreneurship, C.T. Bauer School of Business, University of
Houston (e-mail: jsundie@uh.edu). Chris Janiszewski served as associate
editor for this article.
Exactly how will these programs influence the persuasive-
ness of your advertisement? Will an advertisement featur-
ing a widely used persuasive tactic actually be counter-
effective when aired during one of these programs but not
the other?
Several well-established theoretical models make predic-
tions regarding how emotionally arousing contexts, such as
television programs, should influence the effectiveness of
persuasion heuristics. Arousal-based models predict that
arousal should inhibit deep processing and increase the
effectiveness of diagnostic heuristics (Pham 1996; Sonbon-
matsu and Kardes 1988). Affective valence-based models
differentiate between positive and negative feelings, pre-
dicting a different pattern for each of these types of affect
(Schwarz and Bless 1991). According to such models, pro-
grams that elicit positive feelings (e.g., romantic comedy)
should lead to shallower processing and increased effective-
ness of heuristics. In contrast, programs that elicit negative
feelings (e.g., the worry elicited by a police drama) should
lead to more careful processing and decreased effectiveness
of persuasion heuristics.
In this research, we investigate another possibility
grounded in an evolutionary approach (Griskevicius et al.
2006; Saad 2007; Schaller, Park, and Kenrick 2007). This

© 2009, American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing Research

ISSN: 0022-2437 (print), 1547-7193 (electronic) 384 Vol. XLVI (June 2009), 384–395
Fear and Loving in Las Vegas
theoretical approach suggests that affectively arousing stim-
uli can activate specific emotions. In turn, these specific
states should motivate people to think and act in ways that
are consistent with the underlying fitness-enhancing func-
tions of those emotions (Keltner, Haidt, and Shiota 2006).
Unlike models of general arousal or affective valence, an
evolutionary approach suggests that different emotions (1)
lead people to be persuaded by some types of heuristic cues
and to interpret the same persuasive appeal in different
ways and (2) even cause some well-established persuasive
tactics to be countereffective. In three experiments, we
examine how two emotions (fear and romantic desire)
influence the effectiveness of two commonly used persua-
sion tactics, and we identify when such tactics have a nega-
tive persuasive effect. More broadly, this research high-
lights a promising theoretical approach to marketing by
demonstrating how an evolutionary perspective can lead to
novel marketing insights.
PERSUASION HEURISTICS
Each day people are confronted with innumerable pieces
of information and hundreds of decisions. Not surprisingly,
people seldom deeply process each piece of information,
instead often relying on quick mental shortcuts, or general
heuristic rules, to guide their attitudes and behaviors (Cial-
dini 2001; Kahneman, Slovic, and Tversky 1982). In line
with such findings, it is no coincidence that advertising has
come to use fewer lengthy logical arguments, instead infus-
ing advertisements with simple, time-tested persuasive
appeals. Such appeals capitalize on heuristic processes
because these persuasive tactics are especially effective
when people are not particularly motivated or capable to
think deeply about a message (Petty and Wegener 1998).
One such persuasive tactic is based on the general heuris-
tic rule that if many others are doing it, it must be good—a
persuasion principle known as “social proof” (Cialdini and
Goldstein 2004). Appeals based on the principle of social
proof tend to convey that a product is a top seller or is par-
ticularly popular. Each week, for example, there is a bar-
rage of new advertisements indicating which movie is the
top-grossing film because people are more likely to engage
in a behavior if they are made aware that many others are
already doing it (Bearden and Etzel 1982; Goldstein, Cial-
dini, and Griskevicius 2008; Nolan et al. 2008).
Another such persuasion tactic is based on the general
heuristic rule that if a product or opportunity is rare, it must
be good—an influence principle known as “scarcity” (Cial-
dini and Goldstein 2004). Appeals based on the principle of
scarcity tend to emphasize features related to the distinc-
tiveness, rarity, or unavailability of a product or an opportu-
nity (Dhar and Sherman 1996). For example, companies
purposefully market “limited-edition” products that are per-
ceived as more distinct and less available. Similarly, each
year during the holiday shopping season, there is invariably
a toy (e.g., Nintendo Wii, Power Rangers, Tickle Me Elmo)
that becomes a must-have item in part because it is scarce
(Pratkanis and Aronson 2000).
Because heuristic cues, such as social proof and scarcity,
are known to increase the effectiveness of advertisements,
sales pitches, and even appeals to engage in proenviron-
mental behavior (e.g., Cody and Seiter 2001; Schultz et al.
2007), these strategies consistently appear on a short list of
385
proven persuasion tactics in marketing, persuasion, and
psychology (Cialdini 2001; Hoyer and MacInnis 2006;
Myers 2005; Pratkanis and Aronson 2000; Solomon 2004).
However, advertisements featuring these persuasive tactics
are often preceded by some content, such as a television
program, magazine article, or attention-grabbing image,
that may influence the effectiveness of these appeals.
Indeed, there are several classic theoretical models that
make predictions regarding how affect-arousing contexts
should influence the effectiveness of persuasion heuristics.
As we discuss subsequently, however, each model offers a
different set of predictions regarding how arousal and affect
might influence the use of mental shortcuts.
AROUSAL, AFFECT, AND PERSUASION
Arousal-based explanations focus on the effects of auto-
nomic nervous system activation on thought and behavior.
In general, within the realm of persuasion, higher levels of
arousal promote processing of information in a more shal-
low and peripheral manner, leading people to be more
likely to form evaluations based on diagnostic mental short-
cuts (Petty and Wegener 1998; Pham 1996). For example,
viewing advertisements in an aroused state leads people to
be more persuaded by the general heuristic rule that if an
endorser is likable and attractive, the product must be good
(Sonbonmatsu and Kardes 1988).1 Thus, arousal-based
explanations suggest that the influence of persuasive
heuristics should be enhanced to the extent that various
contexts, such as romantic comedies or police dramas on
television, induce general arousal.
Unlike general arousal models, affective valence-based
explanations draw a sharp distinction between the effects of
positive and negative feelings (Schwarz 2002). According
to these models, positive affect leads people to rely more on
simplistic thinking and mental shortcuts (Batra and Stay-
man 1990; Schwarz and Bless 1991), whereas most nega-
tive states (e.g., fear, sadness) lead people to think in a
more complex manner and to rely less on mental shortcuts
(Murry and Dacin 1996). Accordingly, people in a positive
affective state are more persuaded by a heuristic cue, such
as source expertise, whereas people in a negative state are
less likely to use this mental shortcut (Tiedens and Linton
2001). Thus, according to affective valence-based explana-
tions, to the extent that a context elicits positive affect,
advertisements featuring heuristic cues should be more
effective. In contrast, to the extent that a context elicits
negative affect, such heuristic cues will not necessarily
enhance persuasion.
A MODERN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
Recent research indicates that a distinction based solely
on arousal or affective valence may be insufficient to cap-
ture the rich influence of affect-arousing contexts (Lerner
and Keltner 2001; Pham 2004). For example, fear, embar-
rassment, sadness, anger, and disgust are all negative affect
states, but they do not have equivalent effects on cognition
and behavior (Dahl, Manchanda, and Argo 2001; Lerner,
1Note that not all arousal models are identical. For example, Pham
(1996) argues that arousal increases the selective reliance on any type of
diagnostic information (i.e., heuristic or otherwise), whereas Sanbonmatsu
and Kardes (1988) argue that arousal leads to an increased reliance specif-
ically on heuristic cues.
386
Small, and Loewenstein 2004; Raghunathan and Pham
1999). Given that people across cultures experience similar
affective responses to universal classes of stimuli, it is use-
ful to examine the influence of affect on cognition and
behavior from an evolutionary perspective (Cosmides and
Tooby 2000; Keltner, Haidt, and Shiota 2006).
Two key features of modern evolutionary approaches are
functionality and domain specificity (Kenrick and Shiota
2008; for a more detailed discussion, see Saad 2007; Tooby
and Cosmides 1992). Functionality refers to the explicit
consideration of how a recurrent pattern of behavior, affect,
or cognition might have served to solve recurrent adaptive
problems that all ancestral humans confronted; such funda-
mental adaptive problems included protecting themselves
from predators, finding and attracting mates, making
friends, gaining status, and avoiding disease (see Kenrick,
Li, and Butner 2003). When adopting an evolutionary
approach to examine how emotion might affect cognition
and behavior, researchers might begin by asking the follow-
ing question: Given that cues of physical danger lead peo-
ple of all cultures to experience similar affective reactions
(fear), what might be the adaptive function of this affective
reaction? In other words, the key questions regarding emo-
tion from an evolutionary perspective are, What adaptive
problems might fear (or any other emotion) have helped
solve for our ancestors? and How might that emotion have
promoted solutions to these problems?
Merely to argue that an emotion or a behavior is adap-
tively functional does not necessarily lead to novel
hypotheses. The key second insight that has made modern
evolutionary approaches useful in generating novel
hypotheses is the consideration of domain specificity. The
concept of domain specificity follows from many cross-
disciplinary findings indicating that mental mechanisms
well-suited to solving one adaptive problem are often ill-
suited to solving another (Barrett and Kurzban 2006). Thus,
rather than viewing the brain as one big domain-general
processor, an evolutionary approach views the brain as
comprising multiple domain-specific mechanisms, each
tasked with solving a different adaptive problem. For exam-
ple, although the seemingly simple process of classical con-
ditioning has been historically regarded as domain general,
recent research shows that classical conditioning works dif-
ferently for learning aversions to poisonous foods versus
learning aversions to physical threats—two qualitatively
different adaptive problems (Domjan 2005; Kenrick and
Luce 2004). Furthermore, organisms are predisposed to
condition responses more readily to specific types of stim-
uli that would have promoted ancestral success. For exam-
ple, fear responses in humans and nonhuman animals are
much more easily conditioned to snakes or spiders than to
electrical outlets or automobiles—even though electrocu-
tion and automobile accidents cause many more deaths to
people living in current-day environments (Öhman and
Mineka 2001).
From an evolutionary perspective, emotions are con-
ceived as activators of executive motivational subsystems
that direct energy in ways designed to deal with particular
kinds of adaptive problems (Cosmides and Tooby 2000;
Keltner, Haidt, and Shiota 2006). When such a system is
activated, it promotes a functional cascade of perceptions,
cognitions, and behaviors that are conducive to the success-
ful solution of the adaptive problem (Griskevicius et al.
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, JUNE 2009
2006, 2007; Maner et al. 2005). In addition, the activation
of one such system can inhibit or even suppress the activa-
tion of other potentially competing systems (Brendl, Mark-
man, and Messner 2003; Tipper 1992). For example, engag-
ing the self-protection system can suppress attention to
attractive people of the opposite sex (Neuberg et al. 2005).
Thus, an evolutionary perspective generates a novel set of
empirical predictions involving emotion and persuasion
heuristics. It suggests that the effects of different affect-
arousing contexts should depend not only on the particular
type of affective state in question but also on how the par-
ticular heuristic cue facilitates or inhibits solving recurring
adaptive problems.
Fear, Self-Protection, and Persuasion
Ancestral humans frequently confronted physical threats,
and we are here today in part because our ancestors were
successful at solving the problem of self-protection (Daly
and Wilson 1988). The self-protection system is activated
by fear-eliciting cues that suggest physical threat, including
photos, messages, or movies depicting dangerous others
(Maner et al. 2005). When activated, a self-protective state
should have promoted basic strategies that helped avoid
harm in ancestral environments (Öhman and Mineka 2001).
A core strategy evolutionarily associated with successful
self-protection is increased safety in numbers. When a
social animal is threatened by a predator, for example, that
animal herds closer to its group; this strategy increases sur-
vival because the animal becomes less individually salient
to the predator (Alcock 2005). Consistent with such animal
behavior, fear in humans also appears to produce group-
cohesive processes. For example, when people in a chat
room are made to feel afraid, they are more likely to con-
form to the opinions of others in the chat room (Griskevi-
cius et al. 2006).
Building on this previous work, the current investigation
examines how fear might influence the effectiveness—and
perhaps even the countereffectiveness—of widely used
advertising persuasion heuristics. Traditional persuasion
research (see, e.g., Petty and Wegener 1998) often does not
consider potential differences among various heuristic cues.
For example, general arousal and affective valance models
do not make different predictions depending on whether the
heuristic cue is focused on a spokesperson’s expertise, on
the product’s scarcity, or on social proof (e.g., “best-selling
brand”), but an evolutionary approach posits that the spe-
cific content of a heuristic cue may be especially relevant,
particularly when a person is in a state of fear. Considering
that fear should promote the adaptive strategy to join
together with others, advertisements featuring social proof
appeals (e.g., “the choice of millions”) are likely to be
particularly effective when people are in a fear state. In
contrast, fear may actually cause advertisements featuring
traditional scarcity appeals (e.g., “limited edition”) to back-
fire. That is, it may be especially unappealing (and non-
adaptive) to stand out from the crowd when a predator
might be lurking nearby. Because being distinct increases
conspicuousness, advertisements with scarcity appeals may
be less persuasive in fear-inducing contexts. In summary,
H1: Fear should lead social proof appeals to be more persuasive
than when such appeals are not used.
H2: Fear should lead scarcity appeals to be less persuasive than
when such appeals are not used.
Fear and Loving in Las Vegas
Romantic Desire, Mate Attraction, and Persuasion
In addition to surviving, our ancestors were successful at
solving the adaptive problem of attracting and reproducing
with mates. The mate attraction system is activated by cues
that elicit romantic desire, including photos, stories, or
movies that depict attractive people of the opposite sex,
who suggest the potential for reproductive success. When
activated, this state should promote basic strategies associ-
ated with greater mating success in ancestral environments
(Griskevicius, Cialdini, and Kenrick 2006; Van den Bergh,
Dewitte, and Warlop 2008). A core strategy evolutionarily
associated with successful mate attraction is salient positive
differentiation. For example, when various species of ani-
mals are approached by the opposite sex, they often engage
in conspicuous displays that function both to attract the
attention of the opposite sex and to positively differentiate
the individual from same-sex rivals (Miller 2000). Consis-
tent with such animal behavior, romantic desire in humans
also appears to lead people to engage in salient public dis-
plays, such as conspicuous consumption and public charity
(Griskevicius et al. 2007).
Building on this work, an evolutionary approach suggests
that romantic desire can influence persuasion, especially
regarding the effectiveness of basic persuasion heuristics.
Considering that romantic desire should lead people to
want to differentiate themselves positively, this state should
lead scarcity appeals (e.g., “limited edition”) to be more
persuasive. In contrast, romantic desire might cause social
proof appeals (e.g., “over a million sold”) to backfire. That
is, because doing what many others are doing is not an
adaptive positive differentiation strategy, social proof
appeals may actually become counterpersuasive when peo-
ple are motivated to attract a romantic partner. In summary,
H3: Romantic desire should lead scarcity appeals to be more
persuasive than when such appeals are not used.
H4: Romantic desire should lead social proof appeals to be less
persuasive than when such appeals are not used.
EXPERIMENTS 1A AND 1B
The first two experiments test how eliciting fear and
romantic desire influences the effectiveness of two basic
persuasion heuristics (social proof or scarcity) compared
with a control condition that uses neither heuristic. The two
experiments were conceptually identical in design, but they
differed in (1) the product that was rated, (2) the method of
emotion elicitation, and (3) the wording of the persuasion
heuristics. Specifically, in Experiment 1a, emotion was
elicited through movie clips, and participants rated an
advertisement for a museum that contained a social proof, a
scarcity, or neither appeal; in Experiment 1b, emotion was
elicited through reading short stories, and participants rated
a product review for a restaurant that contained different
persuasion appeals.
Method
Participants. One hundred fifty-four people (74 men and
80 women) participated in Experiment 1a, and one hundred
fifty-seven people (63 men and 94 women) participated in
Experiment 1b. Participants were students at a large univer-
sity, and they participated in the experiments in return for
course credit. Participants came to the experiments in small
387
groups and were seated at computers that were partitioned
from each other.
Design and procedure. Both experiments used a
between-subjects 2 (emotion: fear, romantic desire) × 3
(persuasion heuristic: social proof, scarcity, control) design.
We induced emotion in participants by having them either
view a short video clip (Experiment 1a) or read a short
story (Experiment 1b). Participants then viewed either an
advertisement (Experiment 1a) or a product review (Experi-
ment 1b) that contained a social proof appeal, a scarcity
appeal, or neither appeal (control).
To minimize potential demand characteristics, both
experiments used cover stories. In Experiment 1a, partici-
pants were told that we wanted to add realism to a “market-
ing and personality” study by having everyone watch a
video clip before viewing an advertisement. Importantly,
participants were told that everyone would see the same
clip and the same advertisement because we were interested
in the effects of personality. In Experiment 1b, participants
were told that we were interested in “reading and memory”;
the short story (i.e., the emotion manipulation) was pre-
sented as a memory task, and participants were told that
they were to wait five minutes after reading the story to let
their memory decay before testing. In the meantime, partic-
ipants provided ratings for a product review that was osten-
sibly part of a different study.
Emotion manipulation. To elicit fear and romantic desire,
in Experiment 1a, participants viewed an edited seven-
minute film clip. In the fear condition, they saw scenes
from The Shining, which depicts a madman chasing people
with an ax. In the romantic desire condition, they saw
scenes from Before Sunrise, which depicts an attractive
man and woman falling in love as they travel through
Europe. In Experiment 1b, we elicited emotions by having
participants read a short 600-word story. To elicit fear, par-
ticipants read about being alone in bed late at night and
hearing scary noises; after hearing someone enter the
house, the story ends as someone is about to enter the bed-
room. To elicit romantic desire, participants read about
meeting a highly desirable person of the opposite sex and
spending an enjoyable afternoon with that person.
To assess whether the manipulations were effective at
eliciting the intended emotions, a separate group of 96 peo-
ple underwent the manipulations used in each experiment.
Afterward, they indicated the extent to which they felt (1a)
fear, (1b) motivation to protect themselves, (2a) romantic
desire, (2b) motivation to attract a romantic partner, and (3)
general arousal. We measured responses on nine-point
scales with the endpoints “not at all” (1) and “very much”
(9).
A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with emotion
and method of elicitation (movie clip versus short story) did
not reveal an interaction (F(1, 94) = .24, p = .91), meaning
that there was no difference regarding the type of method
used to elicit the states. Table 1 reports means for every
condition, though we combined the movie clip and short
story conditions for the analyses to avoid repetition. As we
expected, compared with the romantic desire manipula-
tions, the fear manipulations elicited more fear (Ms = 6.51
versus 1.61; F(1, 94) = 130.18, p < .001) and a stronger
motivation for self-protection (Ms = 6.50 versus 2.48; F(1,
94) = 45.37, p < .001). Conversely, compared with the fear
manipulations, the romantic desire manipulations elicited
388
EMOTIONS, MOTIVATIONS, AND AROUSAL ELICITED BY MANIPULATIONS ACROSS EXPERIMENTS
Fear: Movie Clip:
Experiments 1a and 2
State Elicited (n = 24)
Fear 6.17 (2.24)
Motivation to protect self 6.00 (2.98)
Romantic desire 1.25 (.74)
Motivation to attract mate 1.58 (1.74)
General arousal 5.83 (1.95)
Notes: Higher numbers indicate a more intense state. Bold numbers denote means above the midpoint. Standard deviations are in parentheses.
more romantic desire (Ms = 6.80 versus 1.28; F(1, 94) =
170.79, p < .001) and a stronger motivation to attract a
romantic partner (Ms = 7.28 versus 1.56; F(1, 94) = 198.65,
p < .001). Although the romantic desire manipulations
elicited more general arousal than the fear manipulations
(Ms = 7.14 versus 5.68; F(1, 94) = 12.57, p < .01), both
manipulations were above the midpoint, suggesting that
both elicited some level of arousal. Importantly, the pre-
dicted pattern of results (i.e., the interaction of emotion
with persuasion heuristic) could not be explained by the
slightly higher level of general arousal in the romantic
desire condition.
Persuasion heuristics. For Experiment 1a, we created a
magazine-like advertisement for a museum. Because we
did not want participants to be highly motivated to scruti-
nize the advertisement (see Peracchio and Myers-Levy
1997), participants were told that they were among a large
number of people at many universities who were participat-
ing in the study (meaning that their individual responses
were merely one of a large number of responses); partici-
pants were also not given additional incentive to pay careful
attention to the advertisement. The advertisement contained
a photo of the museum, the museum’s logo, and the line
“San Francisco Museum of Art.” In the social proof condi-
tion, we added a heuristic piece of information based on
common social proof appeals to the no-heuristic control
advertisement: “Visited by over a Million People Each
Year.” In the scarcity condition, we added a heuristic piece
of information based on common scarcity appeals: “Stand
Out from the Crowd.” We presented the advertisement to
participants for 15 seconds.
For Experiment 1b, we created a brief, generically posi-
tive product review for a restaurant. In the social proof con-
dition, we added three heuristic pieces of information to the
control review: The title included the phrase “the most pop-
ular restaurant,” and the review mentioned that “many peo-
ple gathered there” and that “if you want to know why
everyone gathers here for a great dining experience, come
join them at the Bergamot Café.” The scarcity condition
included the phrase “a unique place off the beaten path” in
the title, and the review mentioned that the restaurant was a
“one-of-a-kind place that is yet to be discovered by others”
and that “if you’re looking for a great dining experience
different from any other, look no further than the Bergamot
Café.”2
2Consistent with previous findings, testing indicated that inserting a
social proof appeal into the ad/product review (M = 5.59/7.30) or inserting
a scarcity appeal into the ad/product review (M = 5.54/7.22) indeed led the
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, JUNE 2009
Table 1
Emotion Manipulation
Fear: Short Story: Romantic Desire: Movie Clip: Romantic Desire: Short Story:
Experiment 1b Experiments 1a and 2 Experiment 1b
(n = 23) (n = 26) (n = 23)
6.87 (2.01) 1.85 (1.52) 1.44 (.81)
7.02 (1.96) 2.62 (1.98) 2.32 (1.34)
1.32 (1.20) 6.46 (2.66) 7.22 (1.84)
1.54 (1.65) 7.19 (2.19) 7.39 (1.91)
5.55 (1.85) 7.23 (1.80) 7.04 (1.66)
Dependent measures. After viewing the advertisement/
product review, participants responded to six questions,
indicating their attitudes toward the museum/restaurant
and their intentions to go there, both of which were
expected to produce a similar pattern of results. Specifi-
cally, they answered three nine-point questions regarding
their attitudes toward the museum/restaurant (“bad/good,”
“unfavorable/favorable,” and “negative/positive”). Then,
they answered three nine-point behavioral intentions ques-
tions with endpoints “not at all” and “very much” regarding
(1) the extent to which they were interested in finding out
more about the museum/restaurant, (2) how likely they
were to consider going there, and (3) how likely they were
to actually go there.
Results
As we expected, the six attitude and behavioral inten-
tions measures showed a similar pattern (Experiment 1a:
α = .91; Experiment 1b: α = .93), and we combined them
for the analyses. Considering that both experiments had
conceptually identical designs, we first wanted to ensure
that the experiments did not differ in their patterns of
results. An omnibus three-way ANOVA with emotion, per-
suasion heuristic, and experiment did not produce an inter-
action (F(2, 299) = .22, p = .80). The experiment factor also
did not interact with emotion (F(1, 299) = .33, p = .57) or
with persuasion heuristic (F(2, 299) = .47, p = .63), indicat-
ing that emotion and persuasion heuristic had similar
effects in both experiments. Thus, we combined the results
from the experiments for the analyses.
At a broad level of analysis, an ANOVA indicated the
predicted significant interaction between emotion and per-
suasion heuristic (F(2, 305) = 20.81, p < .001, d = .73; see
Figure 1). Although the specific pattern of results was con-
sistent with predictions, to examine our specific hypothe-
ses, we next performed a series of planned comparisons.
First, we examined the predictions for fear. In line with
H1, fear led social proof appeals to be more persuasive than
the control (F(1, 305) = 3.84, p = .051, d = .22; Msocial
proof = 6.50, Mcontrol = 5.88). In contrast, fear led scarcity
appeals to be less persuasive than the control (F(1, 305) =
6.97, p = .009, d = .30; Mscarcity = 4.96, Mcontrol = 5.88).
Thus, in support of H2, not only did fear have different
effects on the persuasiveness of social proof and scarcity
ad/product review to be more persuasive than the no-heuristic control ad/
product review (M = 4.98/6.45).
Fear and Loving in Las Vegas
EXPERIMENTS 1A AND 1B: EFFECTIVENESS OF PERSUASION HEURISTICS AS A FUNCTION OF ELICITED EMOTION
Experiment 1a: Museum Advertisements
6.0
5.5
Product Desirability
5.0
4.5
4.0
Fear Romantic
Desire
Elicited Emotion
(through movie clip)
appeals, but it also led scarcity appeals to be counterpersua-
sive (see Figure 1).
Second, we examined the specific predictions for roman-
tic desire. In line with H3, romantic desire led scarcity
appeals to be more persuasive than the control (F(1, 305) =
5.34, p = .021, d = .25; Mscarcity = 6.53, Mcontrol = 5.79). In
contrast, romantic desire led social proof appeals to be less
persuasive than the control (F(1, 305) = 4.97, p = .033, d =
.24; Msocial proof = 5.04, Mcontrol = 5.79).3 Thus, in support
of H4, not only did romantic desire have a different effect
on the persuasiveness of social proof and scarcity appeals,
but it also led social proof appeals to be counterpersuasive.
Discussion
Contrary to the predictions of general arousal and affec-
tive valence models, fear and romantic desire influenced
the effectiveness of social proof and scarcity heuristics in a
way that is consistent with specific predictions from an evo-
lutionary model. In particular, although appeals based on
the principle of social proof were more effective when peo-
ple were in a fear state, advertisements and messages fea-
turing scarcity appeals actually backfired when people were
in a fear state. In contrast, romantic desire produced the
opposite pattern, leading scarcity appeals to be more per-
suasive and social proof appeals to be less persuasive.
Note that our findings are not mere demonstrations of
simple persuasion-matching effects. For example, matching
3Note that researchers’ critical alpha level (e.g., .05) for two-tail t-tests
for specific predictions depends on the importance researchers place on
Type I errors. For example, a more conservative test in this case would use
a Dunn-Sidak correction (see Kirk 1995) to adjust for using the same con-
trol condition for two tests, which would place the critical alpha level at
.03.
389
Figure 1
Experiment 1b: Restaurant Reviews
7.5
Persuasion
Heuristic
7.0
Control
(no heuristic)
6.5
Social proof
6.0 Scarcity
5.5
Fear Romantic
Desire
Elicited Emotion
(through short story)
models might suggest that putting people in a particular
affective state (e.g., positive or negative) will lead them to
be more responsive to appeals that are congruent with that
affective state. Persuasion-matching models might also sug-
gest that romantic feelings will enhance responses to
appeals that explicitly suggest that a particular product will
make a person more desirable to the opposite sex and that
fear might enhance responses to messages that explicitly
suggest that a particular product will prevent physical dan-
ger. Going beyond such matching hypotheses, our model
makes predictions that involve a nonobvious, subtle inter-
play between emotion and the effectiveness of basic and
widely used persuasion principles—an interplay that flows
naturally from our evolutionary model.
EXPERIMENT 2
Considering that specific emotions can cause widely
used persuasion appeals to be counterpersuasive, Experi-
ment 2 examined theoretically derived contexts in which
such potentially detrimental persuasion effects might be
avoided. By doing so, the experiment also aimed to illumi-
nate the process by which fear and romantic desire can lead
specific persuasive heuristics to be counterpersuasive. To
explore these issues, we again drew on an evolutionary
approach, which led us to parse the persuasion heuristics of
social proof and scarcity into two separate and rarely distin-
guished components.
Two Types of Social Proof Heuristics
Our functional perspective posits that romantic desire
should cause social proof appeals to backfire because this
state motivates people to differentiate themselves positively
by explicitly not doing what many others are doing. How-
ever, a closer examination of the wide uses of social proof
appeals reveals a subtle but potentially important distinc-
390
tion. Social proof appeals sometimes focus on what many
others are doing, but at other times, they focus on what
many others desire or are talking about (e.g., “the movie
that everyone is talking about”). The key difference is that
the first type of appeal conveys mass behavior (many peo-
ple are going to that movie), whereas the second type con-
veys a positive attitude toward that behavior (many people
want to go to that movie) without explicitly conveying that
many people are already doing it.
Social proof appeals often unwittingly conflate “behav-
ioral” information (many others are doing it) and “attitudi-
nal” information (many others are talking about it). For
example, stating that a hotel is the “Number 1 hotel in
town” can imply different information: Perhaps the hotel
books the most rooms (behavioral social proof), such as a
hotel with large discounts, or perhaps the hotel is the “in
place” to be (attitudinal social proof), such as a small bou-
tique hotel frequented by Hollywood’s elite. According to
our functional perspective, romantic desire should decrease
the persuasiveness of only the behavioral social proof
appeal. That is, whereas behavioral social proof appeals
imply that one would be following the herd by purchasing a
product, attitudinal social proof appeals do not explicitly
convey mass consumption, only that people are talking
excitedly about a product. Thus, romantic desire should
produce a backfire effect for behavioral social proof
appeals (as in Experiments 1a and 1b), but it should not
produce a backfire effect for attitudinal social proof
appeals, because such appeals do not convey information
about ubiquitous consumption. In summary,
H5: Although behavioral social proof appeals (“everybody’s
doing it”) should be more persuasive under fear (H1) and
less persuasive in a state of romantic desire (H4) than a
neutral emotion control, the persuasiveness of attitudinal
social proof appeals (“everybody’s talking about it”) should
not differ as a function of emotion.
Two Types of Scarcity Heuristics
Our functional approach makes a similarly textured pre-
diction regarding how emotion-arousing contexts influence
scarcity appeals. Our model posits that fear causes scarcity
appeals to backfire because fear motivates people to stay
with the crowd (and not be distinctive). However, a closer
examination of the wide uses of scarcity appeals reveals
that they do not always focus explicitly on the distinctive-
ness of a product. Instead, scarcity appeals can note that an
opportunity to purchase a product is limited (e.g., “only
three days left”).
Scarcity appeals often unwittingly conflate both distinc-
tiveness and limited opportunity simultaneously (e.g.,
limited-edition product). That is, the reason limited-edition
products are desirable is both because they are perceived as
being less available (limited-opportunity scarcity) and
because owning such products increases the odds that other
people do not have the same ones (distinctiveness scarcity).
Our model predicts that fear and romantic desire should
have a markedly different effect on these two types of
scarcity appeals. Specifically, whereas distinctiveness-
based scarcity appeals convey that purchasing that product
will lead a person to be unique, limited-opportunity scarcity
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, JUNE 2009
appeals do not convey consumer uniqueness. Thus, whereas
fear should cause distinctiveness-based scarcity appeals to
backfire (as in Experiments 1a and 1b), limited-opportunity
scarcity appeals, which are not informative about consumer
uniqueness, should be effective even in threatening con-
texts. In summary,
H6: Although distinctiveness-based scarcity appeals (“stand out
from the crowd”) should be more persuasive in a state of
romantic desire (H3) and less persuasive under fear (H2)
than a neutral emotion control, the persuasiveness of
limited-opportunity scarcity appeals (“limited-time offer”)
should not differ as a function of emotion.
Method
Participants. Four hundred sixty-eight students from a
large university (239 men and 229 women) participated in
the experiment in return for course credit. To minimize
potential demand characteristics, we used a slightly modi-
fied version of the cover story from the first two experi-
ments. Fourteen participants indicated that they were not
fluent in English, leaving 454 participants for the analyses.
Design and procedure. The experiment used a 3 (emo-
tion: fear, romantic desire, neutral) × 4 (persuasion heuris-
tic: behavioral social proof, attitudinal social proof, distinc-
tiveness scarcity, limited-opportunity scarcity) × 2 (product:
museum, Las Vegas) mixed-factorial design. Emotion and
product were between-subjects factors, meaning that a par-
ticipant saw an advertisement for the museum or an adver-
tisement for Las Vegas. Persuasion heuristic was a within-
subjects factor, meaning that each participant saw
advertisements with all four types of persuasion heuristics.
All participants initially rated a no-heuristic version of
the museum or the Las Vegas advertisement. These preemo-
tion manipulation ratings of the no-heuristic advertisement
provided a measure of participant-specific biases toward
the product and ad layout. As we expected, there were no
differences in the initial ratings of the advertisement across
the three emotion conditions (Mneutral = 5.75, Mfear = 5.73,
Mromantic desire = 5.64; F(2, 451) = .23, p = .80). These pre-
emotion ratings served as a covariate in the analyses to
reduce within-subject noise in the study.
After these preratings, we elicited emotion through a
movie clip. We elicited fear and romantic desire through the
same movie clips as in Experiment 1a. Participants in the
neutral condition viewed a clip from the film Winged
Migration, which depicted nature scenes. The addition of a
neutral emotion condition enabled us to ascertain the spe-
cific direction of the persuasion effects predicted for fear
and romantic desire. Participants then viewed the four ver-
sions of the Las Vegas or the museum advertisement; each
version contained one of the four heuristics. The four ver-
sions of the advertisement were each presented in random
order for 15 seconds. We used the same dependent meas-
ures as in Experiments 1a and 1b.
Persuasion heuristic. Half the participants evaluated
advertisements for a museum (see Experiment 1a). In addi-
tion to the three original versions of the advertisement
(behavioral social proof: “Visited by over a Million People
Each Year”; distinctiveness scarcity: “Stand Out from the
Crowd”; and no heuristic), we created two versions for the
Fear and Loving in Las Vegas
two new persuasion heuristic conditions. For the attitudinal
social proof advertisement, we added a line conveying that
many people think the museum is an exciting place: “The
museum that millions are talking about.” For the limited-
opportunity scarcity condition, we added a line conveying a
dwindling opportunity to visit the museum: “Last chance to
visit.”
The other half of participants saw an advertisement for
Las Vegas. The basic no-heuristic version of the advertise-
ment contained a large photo and the name of the city. In
the distinctiveness scarcity condition, the advertisement
contained the appeal “Do something different.” In the
limited-opportunity scarcity condition, the advertisement
contained the appeal “Limited-time offer ends this week.”
In the behavioral social proof condition, the advertisement
contained the appeal “Visited more than any other city.” In
the attitudinal social proof condition, the advertisement
contained the appeal “See what everyone is talking about.”
Ad pretesting. To ascertain whether people clearly per-
ceived the intended differences among the four versions of
the advertisements, a separate group of 23 people viewed
and rated all the advertisements. They indicated the extent
to which each advertisement conveyed information that was
directly related to the four persuasion heuristics in the
study. Specifically, they indicated the extent to which an
advertisement conveyed that there was a limited opportu-
nity to visit the museum/Las Vegas and that this opportu-
nity was becoming increasingly scarce (limited-opportunity
scarcity); that the activity would be something distinct from
what others are doing, and thus visiting these destinations
would enable a person to differentiate him- or herself from
others (distinctiveness scarcity); that these destinations
were commonly visited and were popular (behavioral social
proof); and that there was a lot of “buzz” and a lot of
excitement about these destinations (attitudinal social
proof). They also indicated the extent to which the appeal
was informative regarding whether many or few people
actually visit the museum or Las Vegas. All responses were
provided on seven-point scales with the endpoints “not at
all” and “very much.”
As we expected, a two-way repeated measures ANOVA
with heuristic and advertisement did not indicate an interac-
tion (F(1, 21) = .22, p = .84), so we combined the Las
Vegas and the museum advertisements for the analyses. As
Table 2 shows, pretesting confirmed that each of the four
types of heuristic appeals conveyed the intended informa-
tion. Specifically, products in the distinctiveness scarcity
condition were viewed as more distinct and different rather
EXPERIMENT 2: SPECIFIC PRODUCT INFORMATION CONVEYED BY EACH PERSUASION HEURISTIC
Information Conveyed
About Product Scarcity: Distinctiveness Scarcity: Limited Opportunity
Distinct and different 6.43 (.63)
Limited and scarce 1.48 (.55)
Common and popular 2.49 (1.20)
Buzz and excitement 3.24 (1.38)
Consumption is high 3.35 (1.65)
Notes: Bold numbers denote the highest means within a row. Standard deviations are in parentheses.
391
than as limited and scarce (Ms = 6.43 versus 1.48; F(1,
22) = 517.03, p < .001). In contrast, products in the limited-
opportunity scarcity condition were viewed as more limited
and scarce rather than as distinct and different (Ms = 5.72
versus 2.22; F(1, 22) = 96.85, p < .001). Products in the
behavioral social proof condition were viewed as being
common, popular, and consumed by many rather than as
having much buzz and excitement (Ms = 6.86 versus 4.96;
F(1, 22) = 47.60, p < .001). In contrast, products in the atti-
tudinal social proof condition were viewed as having more
buzz and excitement rather than as being merely common
and popular (Ms = 6.61 versus 5.57; F(1, 22) = 12.79, p =
.002). Importantly, products in the behavioral social proof
condition were perceived as having been significantly more
consumed than products in the attitudinal social proof con-
dition (Ms = 5.87 versus 3.91; F(1, 22) = 18.91, p < .001).
Results
We combined the six dependent measures into a persua-
sion index (α = .91). A repeated measures ANOVA did not
indicate an interaction with type of advertisement (Las
Vegas and museum; F(6, 1341) = .77, p = .60), so we com-
bined the two types of advertisements for the analyses. As
we predicted, a repeated measures analysis of covariance
(with the preemotion manipulation ratings of the no-
heuristic advertisement as a covariate) revealed an interac-
tion between emotion and persuasion heuristic (F(6, 1350) =
10.28, p < .001, d = .44). To test the specific hypotheses of
the study, we performed a series of tests for main effects
and a series of planned contrast with the preemotion
manipulation ratings of the no-heuristic advertisement as a
covariate.
Consistent with H5, the persuasiveness of the new attitu-
dinal social proof appeals (e.g., “the museum that millions
are talking about”) did not differ across the three emotion
conditions (Mcontrol = 5.82, Mfear = 5.91, Mromantic desire =
5.77; p = .92). However, the persuasiveness of the behav-
ioral social proof appeal (e.g., “visited by over a million
people each year”) was significantly different across the
three emotion conditions (F(2, 450) = 7.70, p = .001, d =
.37). In line with H1, behavioral social proof appeals were
more persuasive in the fear than in the control condition
(Mfear = 5.48, Mcontrol = 5.09; F(1, 450) = 5.38, p = .021,
d = .25; see Table 3). Consistent with H4, behavioral social
proof appeals were less persuasive in the romantic desire
than in the control condition (Mromantic desire = 4.71,
Mcontrol = 5.09; F(1, 450) = 3.92, p = .048, d = .20; see
Table 3). Overall, H5 was supported; fear and romantic
Table 2
Type of Persuasion Heuristic
Social Proof: Behavioral Social Proof: Attitudinal
2.22 (1.28) 1.52 (.74) 2.33 (1.33)
5.72 (1.25) 1.21 (.42) 1.30 (.49)
2.34 (1.35) 6.86 (.21) 5.57 (1.46)
2.60 (1.43) 4.96 (1.31) 6.61 (.52)
2.07 (1.18) 5.87 (1.95) 3.91 (2.03)
392
EXPERIMENT 2: EFFECTIVENESS OF EACH PERSUASION HEURISTIC AS A FUNCTION OF EMOTION
Elicited Emotion Scarcity: Distinctiveness Scarcity: Limited Opportunity
Fear 4.84a (.13)
Neutral 5.21b (.11)
Romantic desire 5.68c (.13)
Notes: Superscripts denote significant differences (p < .05) between means within a column. Standard deviations are in parentheses.
desire had opposite effects on behavioral versus attitudinal
social proof appeals.
Consistent with H6, the persuasiveness of the new
limited-opportunity scarcity appeal (e.g., “limited-time
offer ends soon”) did not differ across the three emotion
conditions (Mfear = 5.50, Mcontrol = 5.28, Mromantic desire =
5.28; p > .32). However, the persuasiveness of the distinc-
tiveness scarcity appeal (e.g., “stand out from the crowd”)
was significantly different across the three emotion condi-
tions (F(2, 450) = 14.56, p < .001, d = .51). In line with H3,
distinctiveness scarcity appeals were more persuasive in the
romantic desire than in the control condition (Mromantic
desire = 5.68, Mcontrol = 5.21; F(1, 450) = 11.91, p = .001,
d = .26; see Table 3). Consistent with H2, distinctiveness
scarcity appeals were less persuasive in the fear than in the
control condition (Mfear = 4.84, Mcontrol = 5.09; F(1, 450) =
5.89, p = .016, d = .25; see Table 3). Overall, H6 was sup-
ported; fear and romantic desire had opposite effects on dis-
tinctiveness versus limited-opportunity scarcity appeals.
Discussion
Experiment 2 examined how fear and romantic desire
influenced the persuasiveness of social proof and scarcity
heuristics when they varied in subtle but conceptually
important ways. Consistent with predictions, romantic
desire caused behavioral social proof appeals (“everyone is
doing it”) to backfire, but attitudinal social proof appeals
(“everyone is talking about it”) did not produce a backfire
effect. To our knowledge, this is the first study to highlight
the conceptual differences between the behavioral and the
attitudinal components of social proof–based appeals. This
pattern of results also indicates that romantic desire under-
mines persuasive appeals that specifically suggest that per-
forming a particular behavior will signal that one is acting
like many other members of the crowd. For scarcity heuris-
tics, fear caused distinctiveness-based scarcity appeals (“do
something different”) to backfire, but limited-opportunity
scarcity appeals (“limited-time offer”) did not produce a
backfire effect. Thus, fear appears to undermine persuasion
appeals that suggest that a behavior will make a person
conspicuously visible.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
This research began with a straightforward question:
How might different affect-arousing contexts influence
responses to time-tested and widely used persuasion
appeals? We focused on this question by examining how a
specific positive affective state (romantic desire) and a spe-
cific negative affective state (fear) influence the effective-
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, JUNE 2009
Table 3
Type of Persuasion Heuristic
Social Proof: Behavioral Social Proof: Attitudinal
5.49a (.14) 5.48a (.14) 5.91a (.13)
5.28a (.11) 5.09b (.11) 5.82a (.11)
5.29a (.14) 4.71c (.14) 5.77a (.14)
ness of two well-established heuristic cues: social proof and
scarcity. Whereas general arousal and affective valence
models caused two sets of different predictions, the results
across three experiments were instead consistent with spe-
cific predictions derived from an evolutionary model. This
model suggests that the elicitation of specific emotions
should motivate people to think and act in ways that are
consistent with the underlying fitness-enhancing function
of each emotion. In line with this perspective, fear and
romantic desire had vastly different effects on the persua-
siveness of two persuasion appeals. In particular, fear
caused normally persuasive scarcity appeals to backfire,
though the same scarcity appeals were more effective fol-
lowing romantic content. In contrast, romantic desire
caused normally effective social proof appeals to backfire,
though the same social proof appeals were more effective
following fear-inducing content.
Further consideration of these persuasion backfire effects
led us to use an evolutionary model to identify key compo-
nents of social proof and scarcity appeals that could elimi-
nate such effects. In line with predictions, romantic desire
specifically caused behavioral social proof appeals (“every-
one is doing it”) to backfire, whereas attitudinal social
proof appeals (“everyone is talking about it”) were not
influenced by context. Similarly, fear specifically caused
distinctiveness scarcity appeals (“stand out from the
crowd”) to backfire, whereas limited-opportunity scarcity
appeals (“limited-time offer”) were not influenced by con-
text. This specific pattern of findings also indicates the rea-
son social proof and scarcity appeals can backfire: Roman-
tic desire can cause social proof appeals to backfire because
people in this state are motivated not to follow others’
behavior, and fear can cause scarcity appeals to backfire
because people in this state are motivated to stick together.
These specific patterns of findings, derived from an evolu-
tionary perspective, would not have been predicted a priori
by any other theoretical model of which we are aware.
Evolutionary Approaches
This research is one of the first programmatic empirical
studies to demonstrate the utility of an evolutionary
approach in marketing by showing that adopting an evolu-
tionary approach can produce unique and testable market-
ing insights. Although this theoretical approach has suc-
cessfully led to large numbers of theoretical advancements
in the fields of biology, anthropology, psychology, and eco-
nomics, evolutionary models have thus far been almost
completely absent in research on persuasion and social
influence (Sundie et al. 2006) and in research on consumer
behavior and marketing more generally (Briers et al. 2006;
Fear and Loving in Las Vegas
Miller 2009; Van den Bergh, Dewitte, and Warlop 2008).
Note that evolutionary models do not aim to replace other
theoretical approaches; rather, they can be fruitfully inte-
grated into almost any area of marketing research as a
means of complementing the existing theoretical models
(see Dewitte and Verguts 2002; Saad 2007). Both evolution-
ary approaches (which are concerned with ultimate expla-
nations for behavior) and traditional approaches (which are
concerned with proximate explanations for behavior) are
needed for a complete understanding of any consumer phe-
nomena. Evolutionary models clearly need more extensive
testing by marketing researchers, including the considera-
tions of decision neuroscience (Shiv 2007), but an evolu-
tionary approach provides fertile ground for a wide range
of insights into marketing and consumer behavior, includ-
ing the posing of novel hypotheses that enable broader the-
oretical integration and connect marketing research to a
vast network of theory and research on human and non-
human social behavior.
More specifically regarding emotions, a domain-specific
evolutionary approach suggests that there are discrete nega-
tive and positive emotions. Indeed, recent research has
begun to examine how specific negative emotions influence
cognition (e.g., Lerner and Keltner 2001; Raghunathan and
Pham 1999l; Tiedens and Linton 2001). Although much of
this work has implicit evolutionary components and is com-
patible with our approach, there is a key theoretical differ-
ence. In the aforementioned work, discrete emotions are
often defined by particular cognitive appraisal patterns; that
is, an emotion is defined by whether it relates to a high or
low level of uncertainty, control, or other appraisal dimen-
sion. In contrast, our evolutionary approach to discrete
emotions defines each emotion in an explicitly distinct
manner (Keltner, Haidt, and Shiota 2006). That is, an emo-
tion is “discrete” to the extent that it has a qualitatively
unique set of elicitors and it solves a qualitatively different
adaptive problem relative to another proposed emotion. A
given emotion may be associated with a particular pattern
of cognitive appraisals, but such appraisals neither define
the emotion nor necessarily determine all consequences of
the emotion.
Implications and Future Research Directions
The current findings have theoretical and practical impli-
cations for advertising practice and the strategic placement
of advertisements and products. For example, although tele-
vision advertisers have traditionally relied on viewer demo-
graphic information to determine where and when to pur-
chase airtime, our model suggests that they should consider
the content of the specific program during which their
advertisements will air and should consider such issues in a
more textured and less obvious way. For example, while
touting the uniqueness of a product might be effective dur-
ing a program that elicits romantic desire, the same adver-
tisement aired during a fear-eliciting program, such as grim
local news, might actually make the product unappealing. A
related possibility is that advertisements themselves might
be used to elicit specific emotions (rather than general posi-
tive or negative affect) in a strategic way. For example, the
first 15 seconds of a television spot could be strategically
crafted to elicit a specific emotion; this emotion could be
393
used to make the persuasion appeal in the advertisement
more persuasive. Considering that specific emotions are
hypothesized to motivate fitness-enhancing behavior, an
emotion elicited by an advertisement might influence both
the effectiveness of the persuasive appeal in the advertise-
ment and the attractiveness of the product, depending on
whether the appeal and product promote the solution to the
underlying adaptive problem posed by the emotion.
More broadly, the evolutionary considerations of func-
tionality and domain specificity suggest that consumption-
relevant processes, such as product search, product evalua-
tion, and decision making, differ qualitatively depending on
which adaptive mental system (i.e., which specific evolu-
tionary domain) is being engaged. Such considerations
imply that consumers might process information and make
decisions in qualitatively different ways depending on, for
example, whether they are trying to protect themselves
from disease (Argo, Dahl, and Morales 2006), gain status
(Sundie et al. 2006), or affiliate with others (Maner et al.
2007). Such potential marketing-relevant effects are
unlikely to be limited to advertising; different mental mech-
anism can be engaged in a variety of contexts, such as
when a person encounters a particular background on a
Web site (Mandel and Johnson 2002; Vohs, Mead, and
Goode 2006), sees a particular emotional expression (Ack-
erman et al. 2006), is shopping in a particular store environ-
ment (Kaltcheva and Weitz 2006), or is surrounded by par-
ticular scents or music (Bosmans 2006; Zhu and Meyers-
Levy 2005). Overall, this research—and an evolutionary
theoretical approach in general—reflects only the tip of a
data-rich iceberg that can serve as an impetus for novel
research and theory building in marketing.
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